Disclaimer

Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review routinely receives books from Publishers and Authors for review consideration. When in doubt assume the book comes from a Publisher or if you follow my New Procurement posts I usually describe the source of said book. I still buy a lot of books as well.

This is a mock-up for Ekaterina Sedia'sHeart of Iron, which is expected sometime this Fall from Prime Books. An official description has not been released as of yet, but the cover does tantalize us with few facts. This is looking more and more like Steampunk, but quite different from what Sedia did with The Alchemy of Stone. The art really captures the imagination, but the grey treatment needs some work around the title. The novel is supposed to be focused on Russia and China somehow. And what is up with the guy in the cape? More news I have it and this reminds me I really need to get around to finishing my review of Sedia's The House of Discarded Dreams. It has to be her weirdest book to date, which says a lot if you've read her other works.

UPDATE: Heart of Iron is schedule for a May 2011 release and here is the description:

In a Russia where the Decembrists' rebellion was successful and the Trans-Siberian railroad was completed before 1854, Sasha Trubetskaya wants nothing more than to have a decent debut ball in St. Petersburg. But her aunt's feud with the emperor lands Sasha at university, where she becomes one of its first female students—an experiment, she suspects, designed more to prove female unsuitability for such pursuits than offer them education. The pressure intensifies when Sasha's only friends — Chinese students — start disappearing, and she begins to realize that her new British companion, Jack, has bigger secrets than she can imagine.

Sasha and Jack find themselves trying to stop a war brewing between the three empires. The only place they can turn to for help is the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, newly founded by the Taiping rebels. Pursued by the terrifying Dame Florence Nightingale of the British Secret Service, Sasha and Jack escape across Siberia via train to China. Sasha discovers that Jack is not quite the person she thought he was...but then again, neither is she.